“Stay put and we’ll be right back for you,” Maris said.
For the first time ever, Ture believed those words.
Ture waited behind with Zarya while Darling and Maris opened fire and made a pathway for them. Fearless and skilled, they moved in total synchrony.
Impressed with both their skills, Ture frowned at Zarya. “Are you sure Maris is gay?”
She smiled at him. “Absolutely.”
Ture wasn’t so sure. Not that he believed in stereotypes of any kind. He’d known many gay men who didn’t betray themselves. At least not to outsiders. But with Maris...
He really hid it well.
Maris returned to help them to their feet while Darling stood guard at the door.
They stayed behind Maris and Darling with Zarya giving cover fire while they walked slowly down the hall, then up the stairs with Darling and Maris taking turns to help them. Ture’s head was light and his stomach churned. Worse, the stench of burning wires aggravated his nausea.
Please don’t let me be sick. Not when they were so close to finally getting out of here. He wanted nothing to delay this escape. Especially not with something that would make him look weak in front of Maris and Darling.
No sooner had they reached the upstairs landing than the entire building went dark. Maris and Darling fell back to cover them.
Darling swapped out his charges. “We’re on our way,” he said to someone who must have spoken to him through his link. “Just a few minutes more.”
They moved forward again.
As they rounded a corner, a group of assassins opened fire. Darling shielded Zarya while Maris covered Ture.
“Don’t worry,” Maris said softly to Ture as he placed a hand on his uninjured shoulder. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Those words stunned him as much as Maris’s possessive hold. He wasn’t used to people who didn’t toss others out to protect their own asses.
Darling cursed. “I could really use the tricom right now.”
Zarya offered him an apologetic grimace. “Sorry. It was broken when I was taken.”
“Figures.” Darling cleared the assassins with a small bomb then nodded to Maris. They started moving again.
Slowly, they made their way down the hall until they met up with Nemesis who was helping a large group of prisoners get to safety.
Ture froze as he caught sight of the most feared free assassin known. This was a creature who had mercy on no one. It was said he’d even murdered his own father. Just for practice. And while Ture was far from small, this creature towered over him.
Holy shit...
Even so, Darling and Maris greeted him like a friend.
“Is everyone out?” Darling asked the legendary killer.
Nemesis nodded. “The last group is coming down behind you, right now.”
Thank the gods Nemesis was on their side. But still...
This day couldn’t get any more surreal or bizarre.
Prisoners and Sentella soldiers filled the hallway. To his utter shock, Maris cupped Ture’s cheek in his gloved hand. “You still with us?”
Ture nodded as his vision dimmed. How he wished he knew what Maris looked like. But right then, Maris could have two heads and reptilian skin and he’d be beautiful to him.
Maris checked Ture’s pulse. “Catch your breath, sweetie. We’re almost out of here. Just lean on me as much as you need to.”
How pathetic that those words were the kindest thing anyone had ever said to him.
More than that, Maris draped Ture’s arm around his shoulders and held him tight against his side while he kept his other hand free to shoot.
Suddenly, the walls around them flickered and blinked as someone turned on the video monitors. Out of nowhere, a man’s face appeared all around them, on every wall. Floor to ceiling. Handsome and cruel, the man had one eye covered by a patch.
Maris cursed under his breath.
“Who is it?” Ture asked him.
“Kyr Zemin. High Commander of the League and my idiot brother.”
Now there was something Zarya had neglected to tell him. The man she’d been scheming to set him up with was related to the very nutcase who’d held and tortured them.
That didn’t bode well for Maris’s mental stability. Which meant Ture would fall in love with him and then get his ass kicked for it.
A furious tic beat in Kyr’s jaw. “Do you know who I am?”
Nemesis snorted derisively. “We know. We just don’t give a shit.”
Curling his lip, Kyr raked him with a repugnant glare. “You have breached the sanctity of one of our prisons. Have you any idea the sentence you’ve brought down on your heads?”
Now it was Darling’s turn to scoff. “Add it to the other twelve dozen death sentences we carry.”
Kyr’s tic picked up speed. “I don’t think you truly understand the magnitude of what you’re doing. Return my prisoners to their cells or—”
“Fuck. You,” Darling snarled, punctuating each word.